This paper is based on the observation that fifth year Medicine students do not have enough skills in statistics, IT, or information management to adequately prepare and implement research projects. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to describe the experiences obtained by using the cooperative learning method and to present the results obtained by students in their research projects.  In order to meet the proposed objectives the cooperative learning method was applied to several topics of the Public Health course in the Medical Program.  Consequently, students were divided into five groups to interact with health care specialists and workers, workers from other sectors, and the general public. They identified the most urgent health problems in a participative manner and conducted a research project. The students' acceptance of the method was evaluated using an exploratory statistical technique.  As a result, students analyzed data, drew conclusions, and participated in debates having the professor as the facilitator and coordinator. All groups successfully presented the results of their research projects, which included 2 projects on the control of Dengue and the Aedes aegypti mosquito and 3 on potential maternal mortality risks. Surveys reflected acceptance of the method.  The experiences obtained by using the cooperative learning technique and the results obtained by students in their projects are described; this experience should be systematized.


The rapid infiltration of instructional technologies into educational systems and corporations, confront teachers, trainers and instructors with situations that require the utilization of an ever-growing assortment of technical, cognitive, and sociological skills that are necessary in order to perform effectively in digital environments. These skills are termed collectively 'digital literacy'. However, unlike the common attitude towards digital literacy in most studies of instructional technologies, it is more than just the technical ability to use digital devices properly. Digital literacy comprises a variety of cognitive skills that are utilized when teaching or learning at a distance, such as the ability to divide attention between students in an online lecture, the ability to teach effectively in a non-linear environment, and the ability decipher information from visual representations, as in user interfaces. In fact, digital literacy has become today a "survival skill" for present-days teachers that use technology for instruction; a key that helps them to employ successfully complex instructional strategies in their teaching.


Abstract: This paper addresses the importance of steady state brain oscillation for brain connectivity and cognition. Given that a healthy brain maintains particular levels of oscillatory activity, it argues that disturbances or dysrhythmias of this oscillatory activity can be implicated in common health conditions including Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's Disease, pain, and depression. Literature is reviewed that shows that electric stimulation of the brain can contribute to regulation of neural oscillatory activity and the alleviation of related health conditions. It is then argued that specific frequencies of sound in their vibratory nature can serve as a means to brain stimulation through auditory and vibrotactile means and as such can contribute to regulation of oscillatory activity. The frequencies employed and found effective in electric stimulation are reviewed with the intent of guiding the selection of sound frequencies for vibroacoustic stimulation in the treatment of AD, PD, Pain, and depression.


The South African energy crisis harms the economy. Tax incentives are intended to help, but rules for incentives must be understood by all stakeholders for taxpayers to be encouraged to invest. Section 12L (S12L) is relatively new legislation that allows a tax deduction for verified year-on-year energy efficiency savings in South Africa. Concurrent benefits are excluded from this tax incentive, to prevent a double reward for the same activity. Although the prevention of double benefits is commonly addressed in the field of measurement and verification (M&V), non-technical guidelines are not available. This is a critical shortcoming since multiple professions (tax, audit and legal) need to understand the technical M&V requirements of S12L. This study reviews the current legislation and interpretations of concurrent benefits in terms of S12L. It shows that multiple energy-related incentives are utilised by industries and that, therefore, it must be determined if different programmes overlap, so as to create concurrent benefits with S12L. It is then critical to correctly apply M&V practice to ensure exclusion of concurrent benefits. This study also provides a simplified methodology to evaluate concurrency, based on the S12L regulatory requirements and standard M&V methods. Three case studies show how concurrency can occur and how M&V practice is applied to exclude double benefits. The test for concurrency is shown to reduce to the following question: Is the same energy saving funded twice? The tests must be done to ensure no double benefit occurs.


High‐altitude watersheds in the Front Range of Colorado show symptoms of advanced stages of nitrogen excess, despite having less nitrogen in atmospheric deposition than other regions where watersheds retain nitrogen. In two alpine/subalpine subbasins of the Loch Vale watershed, atmospheric deposition of NO3− plus NH4+ was 3.2–5.5 kg N ha−1, and watershed export was 1.8–3.9 kg N ha−1 for water years 1992–1997. Annual N export increased in years with greater input of N, but most of the additional N was retained in the watershed, indicating that parts of the ecosystem are nitrogen‐limited. Dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) concentrations were greatest in subsurface water of talus landscapes, where mineralization and nitrification augment high rates of atmospheric deposition of N. Tundra landscapes had moderately high DIN concentrations, whereas forest and wetland landscapes had low concentrations, indicating little export of nitrogen from these landscapes. Between the two subbasins the catchment of Icy Brook had greater retention of nitrogen than that of Andrews Creek because of landscape and hydrologic characteristics that favor greater N assimilation in both the terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. These results suggest that export of N from alpine/subalpine watersheds is caused by a combination of direct flushing of N from atmospheric deposition and release of N from ecosystem biogeochemical processes (N cycling). Sensitivity of alpine ecosystems in the western United States to atmospheric deposition of N is a function of landscape heterogeneity, hydrologic flow paths, and climatic extremes that limit primary productivity and microbial activity, which, in turn, control retention and release of nitrogen. Conceptual and mechanistic models of N excess that have been developed for forested ecosystems need to be modified in order to predict the response of alpine ecosystems to future changes in climate and atmospheric deposition of N.


The main aim of this research is to deal with semantic search based on personalized facets in linked open data. User profile is learned from his/her activities and preferences in social networks using tf-idf feature vector model. A faceted graph visualization for result collaborative filtering is proposed. The facets are vertices representing ontological concepts. Other vertices represent instances belonging to the concepts, which are known as facets values. The vertices are highlighted by matching between facets and user profile in order to individually produce search interfaces. The ties between vertices are ontological relations or properties considering as variables/attributes of facets. An algorithm to construct the faceted graph visualization and collaboratively filter search result is also provided. The faceted search method presented here is implemented to demonstrate these ideas.


The concept of usability of man-machine interfaces is usually judged in terms of a number of aspects or attributes that are known to be subject to some rough correlations, and that are in many cases given different importance, depending on the context of use of the application. In consequence, the automation of judgment processes regarding the overall usability of concrete interfaces requires the design of aggregation operators that are capable of modeling approximate or ill-defined interactions among criteria. In addition, justified expert opinions are given a prominent status in the current practice of usability evaluation, which points to the convenience of including experts as an integral part of the aggregation operator design process. On the basis of these assumptions we review in this paper possible approaches to design a suitable aggregation operation and describe a method for such kind of design process that explicitly models expert-elicited relationships among criteria, enforcing some properties on a Choquet capacity. The method subsequently uses experimental data to fine-tune operator design. A case study is described to illustrate the method, and a comparative study with other common aggregation approaches is also provided.


: Since 1950, Alberta Agriculture has supervised and coordinated a rural-based Norway rat (Raltus norvegicus) control program that has essentially kept the province rat-free. Success is achieved by eliminating invading rats within a control zone 600 km long and 30 km wide along the eastern border of the province. A systematic detection and eradication system is used throughout the zone to keep rat infestations to a minimum. Strong public support and citizen participation was developed through public education and a sound awareness effort. Although rat infestations within the interior are minor, a rat response plan is in place to deal with a large or difficult case. Gove~nt preparedness, legislation, climate, geography, effective rat baits and close cooperation between provincial and municipal governments have contributed to program success.


Wildlife habituation near urban centers can disrupt natural ecological processes, destroy habitat, and threaten public safety. Consequently, management of habituated animals is typically invasive and often includes translocation of these animals to remote areas and sometimes even their destruction. Techniques to prevent or reverse habituation and other forms of in situ management are necessary to balance ecological and social requirements, but they have received very little experimental attention to date. This study compared the efficacy of two aversive conditioning treatments that used either humans or dogs to create sequences resembling chases by predators, which, along with a control category, were repeatedly and individually applied to 24 moderately habituated, radio-collared elk in Banff National Park during the winter of 2001-2002. Three response variables were measured before and after treatment. Relative to untreated animals, the distance at which elk fled from approaching humans, i.e., the flight response distance, increased following both human and dog treatments, but there was no difference between the two treatments. The proportion of time spent in vigilance postures decreased for all treatment groups, without differences among groups, suggesting that this behavior responded mainly to seasonal effects. The average distance between elk locations and the town boundary, measured once daily by telemetry, significantly increased for human-conditioned elk. One of the co-variates we measured, wolf activity, exerted counteracting effects on conditioning effects; flight response distances and proximity to the town site were both lower when wolf activity was high. This research demonstrates that it is possible to temporarily modify aspects of the behavior of moderately habituated elk using aversive conditioning, suggests a method for reducing habituation in the first place, and provides a solution for Banff and other jurisdictions to manage hyperabundant and habituated urban wildlife.


Background: The RIIβ subunit of PKA exhibits unique isoform-specific structural features. Results: The unique structural properties of RIIβ do not require the C-terminal cAMP-binding domain. Conclusion: The RIIβ linker and N-terminal cAMP-binding domain confer unique subunit structure and organization of the type IIβ holoenzyme. Significance: The subunit structure and organization of the type IIβ holoenzyme contribute to its unique isoform-specific biochemical properties and functions. Protein kinase A (PKA) is ubiquitously expressed and is responsible for regulating many important cellular functions in response to changes in intracellular cAMP concentrations. The PKA holoenzyme is a tetramer (R2:C2), with a regulatory subunit homodimer (R2) that binds and inhibits two catalytic (C) subunits; binding of cAMP to the regulatory subunit homodimer causes activation of the catalytic subunits. Four different R subunit isoforms exist in mammalian cells, and these confer different structural features, subcellular localization, and biochemical properties upon the PKA holoenzymes they form. The holoenzyme containing RIIβ is structurally unique in that the type IIβ holoenzyme is much more compact than the free RIIβ homodimer. We have used small angle x-ray scattering and small angle neutron scattering to study the solution structure and subunit organization of a holoenzyme containing an RIIβ C-terminal deletion mutant (RIIβ(1–280)), which is missing the C-terminal cAMP-binding domain to better understand the structural organization of the type IIβ holoenzyme and the RIIβ domains that contribute to stabilizing the holoenzyme conformation. Our results demonstrate that compaction of the type IIβ holoenzyme does not require the C-terminal cAMP-binding domain but rather involves large structural rearrangements within the linker and N-terminal cyclic nucleotide-binding domain of the RIIβ homodimer. The structural rearrangements are significantly greater than seen previously with RIIα and are likely to be important in mediating short range and long range interdomain and intersubunit interactions that uniquely regulate the activity of the type IIβ isoform of PKA.


Dr. Hulusi Behçet was born on February 20, 1889 in Istanbul. He graduated from Gülhane Military Medical Academy in 1910 and then he specialized in Dermatology and Venereal Diseases. He served in the Edirne Military Hospital between 1914-1918 and then went to Budapest and Berlin to improve his knowledge. In 1923, he started at the Istanbul Medical Faculty as an academic staff and with university reform in 1933, he was appointed as a professor to Department of Dermatology and Venereal Diseases and continued his career there until his death in 1948. Three patients whom he had consulted for years and who shared similar symptoms made him suspect a new disease and a viral etiology which may play a role in the appearance of this disease. After several discussions and publications, medical literature had accepted Behçet's Disease as a special entity. Dr. Behçet published a total of 196 articles, 53 of which were published in prestigious international journals.


Despite increasing early rehabilitation and mobilisation (ERM) in paediatric intensive care, current evidence for ERM of neonatal and paediatric patients receiving extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is limited. The proposed benefits of ERM in neonatal and paediatric ECMO patients are multifaceted, including reduced immobility related issues and maintenance of functional ability. However, ECMO presents additional safety and logistical challenges, and currently there are no published neonatal or paediatric guidelines. A consensus document was developed to provide guidance for ERM with neonatal and paediatric ECMO patients. The document was developed by specialist physiotherapists from nine ECMO centres within the UK and Ireland, together with the UK Paediatric Critical Care Society ECMO group and members of the multidisciplinary team. The document covers key considerations and practicalities for completing ERM in this population including, acuity level measurement, activity level guidance, safety and risk assessment, and goal setting. Risk assessment and safety checklist bedside tools are also included and designed to be adapted as required to meet specific unit policies and protocols.


The aim of this work is to provide a unified observer design method for nonlinear Lipschitz discrete-time systems with extension to H infin synchronization and input recovery used for communication systems. The stability analysis is performed using a suitable Lyapunov function that leads to the solvability of linear matrix inequalities. One of the main challenges is to establish nonconservative stability conditions, particularly with respect to large Lipschitz constants. Simulations and experimental results have been provided in order to show the performances of the proposed method.


Lysosomal storage disorders (LSDs) are a group of monogenic condition, with many characterized by an enzyme deficiency leading to the accumulation of an undegraded substrate within the lysosomes. For those LSDs, postnatal enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) represents the standard of care, but this treatment has limitations when administered only postnatally because, at that point, prenatal disease sequelae may be irreversible. Furthermore, most forms of ERT, specifically those administered systemically, are currently unable to access certain tissues, such as the central nervous system (CNS), and furthermore, may initiate an immune response. In utero enzyme replacement therapy (IUERT) is a novel approach to address these challenges evaluated in a first-in-human clinical trial for IUERT in LSDs (NCT04532047). IUERT has numerous advantages: in-utero intervention may prevent early pathology; the CNS can be accessed before the blood-brain barrier forms; and the unique fetal immune system enables exposure to new proteins with the potential to prevent an immune response and may induce sustained tolerance. However, there are challenges and limitations for any fetal procedure that involves two patients. This article reviews the current state of IUERT for LSDs, including its advantages, limitations, and potential future directions for definitive therapies.


The Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) is an open, global specification that empowers mobile users with wireless devices (such as mobile phones) to easily access and interact with information and services on the Internet. Although some components of the WAP suite have been developed, it lacks a complete general architecture integrating software components of both the Internet and wireless contexts in a transparent way. This paper presents a general architectural framework to develop and deploy portable applications and services accessible by WAP-compliant mobile terminals, extending end-to-end services between terminal and business applications. Different implementation strategies for the application logic are presented, allowing either fast prototyping or the realisation of robust, portable, complex applications and transactional services. Moreover, a technique to handle terminal disconnection is presented.


Using unbiased quantitative techniques, we evaluated the effect of Parkinson's disease on the regional size and the number of tyrosine hydroxylase-producing neurons and all neurons in the midbrain A8 and A10 dopaminergic cell groups located adjacent to the substantia nigra. Seven patients with Lewy body Parkinson's disease were evaluated and compared with five controls. Four of the patients with Parkinson's disease had additional neuropathology, and the effect of concomitant pathology on A10 populations was also determined. Degeneration was not observed in the A8 regions of any patient, and only certain A10 nuclei were affected by the disease. The parabrachial pigmented nucleus situated dorsal to the substantial nigra, and the parapeduncular nucleus located rostromedially were significantly reduced by 40-50% in patients with Parkinson's disease. Few differences were found between patients with or without additional pathology, suggesting a similar pathogenic mechanism to that observed in the substantia nigra of these patients. However, patients with additional pathology also had serotonergic cell loss in the caudal linear nucleus. There was a reduction in tyrosine hydroxylase immunoreactivity but no overt neurodegeneration in other A10 regions, suggesting the disease may also influence the production of dopamine in some surviving neurons.


Pre-trained contextual representations have led to dramatic performance improvements on a range of downstream tasks. This has motivated researchers to quantify and understand the linguistic information encoded in them. In gen-eral, this is done by probing, which consists of training a supervised model to predict a linguistic property from said representations. Un-fortunately, this definition of probing has been subject to extensive criticism, and can lead to paradoxical or counter-intuitive results. In this work, we present a novel framework for probing where the goal is to evaluate the inductive bias of representations for a particular task, and provide a practical avenue to do this using Bayesian inference. We apply our framework to a series of token-, arc-, and sentence-level tasks. Our results suggest that our framework solves problems of previous approaches and that fastText can offer a better inductive bias than BERT in certain situations.


This article estimates the first constant quality price index for Internet domain names. The suggested index provides a benchmark for domain name traders and investors looking for information on price trends, historical returns, and the fundamental risk of Internet domain names. The index increases transparency in the market for this newly emerged asset class. A cointegration analysis shows that domain registrations and resale prices form a long‐run equilibrium and indicates supply constraints in domain space. This study explores a large data set of domain sales spanning the years 2006 to 2013. Differences in the quality of individual domain names are controlled for in hedonic repeat sales regressions.


Australia has over 70,000 kilometres of coastline, of which Queensland has 7,000 kilometres. The beach has long occupied a special place in the Australian identity. The beaches are not only important to the Australian people but they are a highly valuable tourist resource. Determining their carrying capacity is an essential factor for their sensible use and management. A preliminary perception study of Gold Coast beaches was conducted over a two-year period - in 2004 and 2005. The survey, adapted from one used in Portugal by Professor Carlos Pereira da Silva (Da Silva, 1998), was conducted with a group of Griffith University students. This survey provided a base from which further research was conducted in April 2006. Using a modified, shorter, more precise, survey with an expanded population range the survey explored beach perception, landscape, and behaviour. The modified survey was conducted at four designated Gold Coast beaches using a random selection process. This initial survey work revealed some interesting results including that the majority of the people surveyed thought beach crowds were perfect in their current state but 79% of the remaining respondents indicated carrying capacity had already been exceeded; with Gold Coast beaches perceived as either over-crowded or could do with less people. The future analysis of this data will assist in gaining a wider populations' perception of the Gold Coast beaches and to better determine what Australians use their beaches for, which can aid in future development and conservation programs.


Neuroleptic malignant syndrome is an uncommon complication of antipsychotic drugs. Along with the signs and symptoms like psychosis, muscular rigidity, fever and altered mental status, the biochemical parameters especially elevated creatinine kinase levels play an important role in establishing the diagnosis of the syndrome. Here we report a case involving an eighteen-year-old boy with newly diagnosed bipolar mood disorder who presented with neuroleptic malignant syndrome after Olanzepine was started. With nonspecific psychiatric clinical symptoms and deteriorating condition, the diagnosis was becoming doubtful. Confirmation was confirmed by severely elevated Creatinine kinase activity along with other biochemical parameters, thus ascertaining the role of clinical laboratories in medicine.


The development of active steering control technology not only provides key actuators for intelligent vehicle motion control, but also expands vehicle stability and safety. This paper studies the potential control ability of the front-wheel steering control to the vehicle plane dynamics, and the controllable area boundary is designed on the phase plane of side slip angle and yaw rate. Previous studies have defined a dynamics stable area on the vehicle states phase plane, in which the vehicle state can autonomously return to a stable equilibrium point. The area outside the stable area are divided into the controllable area and the uncontrollable area in this paper. In the controllable area, the front-wheel steering control has the ability to pull the vehicle states back towards the stable area. Considering actuator constraints and model errors, based on the principle of safety design, a band-shaped critical area is designed to separate the controllable area from the uncontrollable area, and the linear mathematical model of the controllable area boundary is designed. In order to verify the rationality of the controllable area definition, nonlinear model predictive controller is designed to control the vehicle outside the dynamics stable area. The controller uses the high-fidelity nonlinear vehicle model and the magic formula tire model as the state equation constraints, and the practical steering actuator constraints are used as the control input constraints, and the nonlinear numerical optimization solver is used to solve the optimal steering input sequence. The phase plane analysis of the controlled vehicle verifies the rationality of the controllable area defined in this paper.


Using the 1,9-dmmb topo-optical staining reaction carried out at pH 1-2 we were able to demonstrate the ordered arrangement of glycosaminoglycans on the surface of lymphocyte membranes. Our own histochemical observations have shown that the surface GAG component is not uniform: in addition to hyaluronic acid it contains chondroitin-4-sulphate, chondroitin-6-sulphate and dermatan sulphate. With the 1,9-dmmb topo-optical staining reaction at pH 1.0 to 2.0, the membranes of human lymphocytes (and neutrophilic granulocytes) selectively stain while those of erythrocytes do not. This difference may be due to the lack of the GAG component in the erythrocyte membrane. The heterogeneity of the human lymphocyte sialic acid component was demonstrated histochemically. With sialic acid- and O-acyl-sialic acid specific topo-optical reactions we detect an oriented sialic acid and O-acyl-sialic acid component on the surface of both B and T lymphocytes. In our polarization optical analysis, the sialic acid (and 9-O-acyl sialic acid), its pyranose ring respectively showed a membrane parallel orientation. On the basis of biochemical and immunological findings, the plasma membrane-associated RNA of lymphocytes was selectively demonstrated along with the difference between ergasto-plasmic and plasma membrane-associated RNA. Our histochemical and biochemical results suggest that the human lymphocyte membrane is more complex than other cell membranes.


The contextual challenges in the context of HIV negatively impact the social ecology of the families. The consequences of this are that it adversely impacts the psychosocial func‐ tioning of caregivers and health and well‐being of the children. The findings showed that caregiving is performed, not only in the context of maternal HIV infection, but also in the context of inadequate material and financial resources and single‐head households where women assume the primary caregiving role. Caregiving is also complicated by the issue of maternal death and abandonment, where relatives (i.e. mainly grandparents) assume the role of the primary caregivers of children infected with HIV. On the other hand, emerging studies that started to focus on enhancing resilience in children whose caregiver is HIV positive holds promise to the fact that adequate interventions can have long‐lasting benefits on the developmental and psychological trajectory of HIV‐positive children and their HIV‐positive caregivers. Consequently, the link between poverty and HIV/AIDS has been established, and its impact on perinatal, infancy and early‐childhood development outcomes is clearly documented.


Layout plays crucial role in readability and interpretation of presentations. This holds also for online presentations, where automated layout generation is needed to deal with dynamic presentation contents and changing presentation contexts. In this paper, we present the DesignComposer prototype, an automated layout generator for web pages. It uses different AI approaches and a declarative representation of knowledge about design and presentation context to gain maximum flexibility in the generation process as well as an easy access to the layout knowledge.


Interoperability and time-criticality are the most mandatory needs in the development process of distributed industrial process measurement and control systems (IPMCS) applications. The function block (FB) concept is adopted in the development of an engineering support system (ESS) in order to address the device interoperability issue as well as to automate the development process and increase reusability. Apart from exploiting FBs provided by intelligent field devices, and assigning functionality to the different field devices, these FB-oriented ESSs must deal with the real-time nature of IPMCSs. In the context of this work, we define a common field device model using Unified Modelling Language (UML). This model, combined with a 4-layer IPMCS architecture, constitutes a framework that facilitates the application of ESS functionality in order to guarantee real-timeliness of the final system.


Low-complexity encoders for non-binary low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes with code rate of 1/3 are implemented with Field Programmable Gate Arrays. In this design, the locations of non-zero entries in the parity-check matrix are generated on the fly with several integers called address generators. Furthermore, the non-zero entries are limited to only a pair of permuted elements and thus a single bit is used to choose the different constant coefficient multipliers rather than using the general multipliers in Galois fields. In this way, efficient encoders are implemented using only several constant-coefficient multipliers and limited memories for a type of non-binary LDPC codes, which show significant error correction performance when the code length is large.


Investigation and determination of residual frictional properties of rock joints is important for designing structures on or within the rock masses. Tribometer is a device to measure frictional properties of various types of contacting surfaces. In this research, several direct shear experiments conducted on two types of artificial limestone joints named Onyx marble and Travertine. Two types of surfaces geometry such as rough tensile joint surfaces with standard dimensions (based on ISRM suggested methods) and grinded planar small surfaces with dimensions ranged from 1 cm2 to 25 cm2 were prepared. Direct shear experiments by constant shearing rate and under different normal stresses conducted in CNL boundary condition. Results obtained from the residual state of the shear were gathered and investigate and it found that the residual friction coefficient of limestone rock joints, under almost similar normal stress and shearing rate conditions, remains approximately constant with differing the contact size of the specimens. In addition, under approximately similar stress concentrations in contact regions, the residual shear behavior of rough surfaces with standard dimensions is very similar to that of small planar ground surfaces in limestone joints. Finally, based on findings in this research and some other past researches, it is proposed to apply tribometers for measuring the residual shear strength of rock joints. In this paper, a conceptual design of a tribometer is proposed to develop for measuring residual frictional properties of a point contacts of rock surfaces during 5 to 20 mm shear displacements.


Lawrence J. Dennis s intellectual biography of John L. Childs, a leading figure in twentieth-century American educational philosophy between 1930 and 1960, traces Childs s influence not only on education but also on midcentury politics, economics, and social issues. A disciple of John Dewey and an associate of William Heard Kilpatrick, George S. Counts, Boyd Bode, and other key figures in modern American education, Childs laid the philosophic basis for social reconstruction and became an important contributor to and interpreter of pragmatism as a philosophy of education.Dennis describes how the Christian beliefs so central to Childs as a youth led him as a young man into a decade of YMCA missionary work in China. When he returned to the United States, Childs studied with John Dewey, later coauthoring two chapters of a book with him. Though Childs became a recognized expert on Dewey s educational theory, he eventually became more of a reconstructionist than his mentor.Dennis carefully recounts Childs s long association with Dewey as well as his political activities in the American Labor Party, the Liberal Party, and the American Federation of Teachers. He likewise traces the debate about metaphysics, democracy, and indoctrination that ensued among the foremost pragmatists of the day."


Abstract Pulp yield can be improved by a more homogeneous delignification of the chips, achieved by improved impregnation prior to the cooking stage. Complete and efficient impregnation is obtained by increasing the diffusion rate by means of an impregnation liquor with a high initial effective alkali concentration (HIEAC). In the present study, the effect of HIEAC in the impregnation was evaluated and compared to a reference impregnation procedure and a prolonged impregnation. After the various impregnation scenarios, the alkali concentration was always adjusted to the same level in the beginning of the cooking stage. Impregnation with a HIEAC resulted in yield improvements by 1–1.5% units, due to a higher cellulose yield and possibly also to higher yield of glucomannan. The HIEAC with an even alkali distribution within the chips prior to the cooking stage resulted in a more uniform delignification carbohydrate degradation. Yield increase obtained by uniform delignification is due to both decreased shives content as well as less secondary peeling.


The North American Arctic witnessed high-amplitude climatic change during the Early Holocene that resulted in regional-scale environmental change. These changes are well documented in the literature. The environmental impacts of moderate climatic oscillations during the Mid- to Late Holocene are less well understood, especially on the Yukon Coastal Plain, which is geographically and topographically isolated from the rest of the western Canadian Arctic. The region is currently experiencing increased thaw of ice-rich permafrost, alterations in landscape water balance, and shrub expansion. These processes are connected to severe transformations in a landscape that is overwhelmingly composed of periglacial landforms. Especially the widespread thaw lakes and ice-wedge polygons are known to be vulnerable to climatic and geomorphic change because of their direct dependence on permafrost conditions, and hence on air temperatures. Tundra vegetation dynamics are linked to permafrost conditions and geomorphology, yet the interplay between vegetation, permafrost, geomorphology and climate is not well articulated in Low Arctic tundra. Finally, the temporal and spatial scales at which climatic change and geomorphic processes may affect periglacial landforms on the one hand and tundra vegetation on the other hand are not clearly constrained. Yet, these scale-dependent relationships are crucial components of the adaptation and resilience potential of high-latitude environments.
This thesis identified long-term as well as short-term trends in the development of thaw lakes, ice-wedge polygons and tundra vegetation during the Mid- to Late Holocene. This was done by studying modern, sub-decadal, and centennial- to millennial-scale records from ice-wedge polygons and lake sediment in different landscape units on the Yukon Coastal Plain. Additionally, drivers of change to these systems and possible causes of environmental stability were assessed.
To address and constrain the wide range of spatial and temporal dimensions involved in landscape development, at first the modern state of ice-wedge polygons and a thaw lake were examined. The following analyses characterized organic matter (organic carbon contents, nitrogen contents, stable carbon isotopes), biological proxies (pollen, plant macrofossils, diatoms), and abiotic sediment (grain size composition, pore water hydrochemistry) in multiple short cores. The age-depth relationship was determined by Accelerator Mass Spectrometry radiocarbon dating in all cores and additional 210Pb/137Cs dating in the younger lake sediment core. These records encompassed the environmental history at four sites dispersed along the Yukon Coastal Plain in the Western Canadian Low Artic.
Long-term thaw lake decline was observed at all sites now occupied by ice-wedge polygons. These lakes drained gradually or abruptly, leaving behind wet to shallow submerged areas, which prevailed for up to 1000 years and subsequently provided waterlogged terrestrial conditions with impeded drainage. The investigations have shown that coastal erosion contributed to thaw lake drainage. The newly exposed lake floors were then rapidly invaded by pioneer vegetation, and ice-wedge polygon development began immediately after drainage. Subsequently, low-centred ice-wedge polygons grew and peat accumulation persisted in a relatively stable state for millennia, before ice-wedge degradation and drying of the ground surfaces set in, likely during the twentieth century. At two sites, the emergence of intermediate- and high-centred polygons ensued. This rapid change was reflected by the vascular plant taxa composition at the studied sites, which shifted from a graminoid-dominated to a shrub-dominated pattern. At the same time, however, the overall regional vegetation, which was reconstructed from pollen in lake sediment, remained largely stable even across the transition from cooler conditions of the Little Ice Age to twentieth century warming.
Degradation of ice-rich permafrost is increasingly causing geomorphic disturbances on the Yukon Coastal Plain and on Herschel Island. The widespread polygon degradation might lead to changes in microtopography and landscape hydrology that are irreversible on decadal to centennial time-scales and decoupled from climate-driven vegetation change alone.
The sensitivity of permafrost and vegetation to climatic change depends on amplitude and duration of change. While permafrost responds rapidly to climatic change, the response of tundra vegetation may lag behind climate forcing. Tundra vegetation resilience and small-scale landscape heterogeneity may also buffer a certain amount of stress. Warming-induced change to permafrost may, however, trigger geomorphic change, which would affect tundra vegetation at much shorter time-scales.
During the Early Holocene, high-amplitude climatic forcing was the dominant driver of environmental change. The Late Holocene experienced moderate climatic oscillations, and geomorphic and biological processes complicated the response of vegetation and permafrost to climatic forcing. This facilitated localized environmental variability. The modern warming trend is, however, currently causing extensive permafrost degradation and shrub expansion that could trigger a strong and irreversible environmental response.


Summary – The root-knot nematode, Meloidogyne graminicola, can cause substantial rice yield losses. Understanding the mechanisms of resistance to this nematode species in known resistant rice genotypes may help to improve rice genotypes, aiming at developing and implementing environment-friendly and cost-effective nematode management strategies. Using susceptible and resistant rice genotypes, a comparative analysis of histological response mechanisms was made during two phases of the nematode colonisation: i) root penetration; and ii) subsequent establishment and development by M. graminicola second-stage juveniles (J2). Two types of defence response mechanisms could be distinguished in the resistant rice genotypes. The early defence response consisted of a hypersensitive response (HR)-like reaction in the early stage of infection characterised by necrosis of cells directly affected by nematode feeding. This HR-like reaction was observed only in the M. graminicola-resistant Oryza glaberrima genotypes and not in the M. graminicolasusceptible O. sativa genotypes. The late defence response took place after the induction of giant cells by the J2. Giant cells usually collapsed and degenerated before J2 developed into adults. Structural features of the roots of the susceptible O. sativa showed greater root and stele diam. and cortex thickness than the resistant O. glaberrima genotypes. Desired features of plants with resistance to M. graminicola elucidated in this study can be used for selection of plants for breeding programmes.


Introduction: Given that the thoughts and dysfunctional beliefs about sexual issues affect marital satisfaction and mental health, providing appropriate solutions can increase marital satisfaction and mental health; This study aimed to determine the effectiveness of cognitive restructuring sex education on marital satisfaction and mental health of the couples in Esfahan. Materials & Methods: This Quasi-experimental study (pre-test and post test control group) was done on 120 couples chosen among parents of elementary school children through cluster sampling in 2014. Sixty couples were places in both experimental and control groups (60 couples per group). After completing the questionnaire of Enrich marital satisfaction and mental health and completion of 10 sessions (two sessions per week for five weeks) of cognitive restructuring sex education in the experimental group, questionnaires were administered to both groups. Data were analyzed using multivariate analysis was performed. Results: Cognitive restructuring sex education on marital satisfaction and mental health has been effective in the experimental group (p =0.05); by reducing depression, and increasing mental health increased. Conclusion: It seems that through education of sexual cognitive restructuring marital satisfaction and mental health can be increased, so this intervention as an effective program to promote mental health and marital satisfaction is recommended.


In the current study, stir and centrifugal casting apparatus have been designed and constructed for the preparation of cast functionally graded aluminium alloy (AA4043) based composites containing Silicon Carbide (SiC) reinforcement particles. Hardness of different cast functionally graded composites (FGCs.) processed with different rotating speeds have been investigated. Unreinforced base alloy and cast gravity composite corresponding to the composition of matrix alloy of cast FGCs have also been cast and characterized for the purpose of comparison. The present study aims to understand the influence of rotating speed of mould on the reinforcing particles distribution and hardness of the resulting cast FGCs. It was found that increasing the processing speed of mould increases the level of distribution of reinforcing particles from the inner to the outer region. At a given processing speed, hardness increases significantly with increasing the radial distance for the both top and bottom surfaces and could be attributed to the segregation of the reinforcing particles at the outer region.


Purpose: Online Fitness Communities are a recent phenomenon experiencing growing user bases. They can be considered as online social networks in which recording, monitoring and sharing of physical activity (PA) are the most prevalent practices. They have added a new dimension to the social experience of PA in which online peers function as virtual physical activity partners or supporters. However, research into seeking and receiving computermediated social support for physical activity is scarce. Our aim was to study to what extent using Online Fitness Communities and sharing physical activities with online social networks results in receiving various types of online social support. Method: Two databases, one containing physical activities logged with Strava and one containing physical activities logged with RunKeeper and shared on Twitter were investigated for occurrence and type of social support, by means of a deductive content analysis. Results: Results indicate that support delivered through Twitter is not particularly extensive. On Strava, social support is significantly more prevalent. Especially esteem support, expressed as compliments for the accomplishment of an activity, is provided on both Strava and Twitter. Conclusion: The results demonstrate that social media have potential as a platform used for providing social support for PA, but differences among various social network sites can be substantial. Especially esteem support can be expected, in contrast to online health communities, where information support is more common.


Abnormal grain growth (AGG) takes place in many metallic systems especially after recrystallization of deformed polycrystals. A famous example of AGG in metallic system is the Goss texture in Fe-3%Si steel. During high temperature annealing of Fe-3%Si sheet, a few near Goss {110} <001> grains grow exclusively fast and consume the matrix grains. Therefore, the grains which have near Goss orientation have special advantage over other grains. As a new approach to the growth advantage of AGG, we suggested the solid-state wetting mechanism, where a grain wets or penetrates the grain boundary or the triple junction of its neighboring grains. The solid-state wetting mechanism for the evolution of the Goss texture in Fe-3%Si steel was studied experimentally and by phase-field model (PFM) simulation.


We describe a system to detect objects in three-dimensional space using video and inertial sensors (accelerometer and gyrometer), ubiquitous in modern mobile platforms from phones to drones. Inertials afford the ability to impose class-specific scale priors for objects, and provide a global orientation reference. A minimal sufficient representation, the posterior of semantic (identity) and syntactic (pose) attributes of objects in space, can be decomposed into a geometric term, which can be maintained by a localization-and-mapping filter, and a likelihood function, which can be approximated by a discriminatively-trained convolutional neural network The resulting system can process the video stream causally in real time, and provides a representation of objects in the scene that is persistent: Confidence in the presence of objects grows with evidence, and objects previously seen are kept in memory even when temporarily occluded, with their return into view automatically predicted to prime re-detection.


We consider the practical problem of video surveillance in public transport systems, where security videos are stored onboard, and a central operator occasionally needs to access portions of the recordings. When this happens, the selected video must be uploaded within a deadline, possibly using multiple parallel wireless interfaces. Interfaces have different associated costs, related to tariffs charged by Mobile Network Operators (MNOs), energy consumption, data quotas, system load. Our goal is to choose which interfaces to use, and when, so as to minimize the cost of the upload while meeting the deadline, despite the unknown short-term variations in throughput. To achieve this goal, we first collect real traces of mobile uploads from vehicles for different MNOs. Examination of these traces confirms the unpredictability of the short-term throughput of wireless connections, and motivates the adoption of adaptive schedulers with limited a-priori knowledge of the system status. To effectively solve our problem, we devised a family of adaptive algorithms, that we thoroughly evaluated using a trace-driven approach. Results show that our adaptive approach can effectively leverage the fundamental tradeoff between the total cost and the delivery time of content upload, despite unknown short-term variations in throughput.


Reproductive development in the Christmas rose (Helleborus niger L.) differs from that in commonly investigated model plants in two important aspects: (i) the perianth develops a photosynthetic system, after fertilization, and persists until seed ripening; and (ii) the ripe seed contains an immature embryo which continues to mature off the mother plant. The possible roles of cytokinins in these processes are investigated here by analysing extracts of the perianth and the carpels/maturing fruit prepared during anthesis and four stages of post-floral development. trans-Zeatin, dihydrozeatin, N6-(Delta2-isopentenyl)adenine, and their ribosides were identified by tandem mass spectrometry. Single ion monitoring in the presence of deuterated internal standards demonstrated the additional presence of the corresponding riboside-5'-monophosphates, O-glucosides, and 9-glucosides, and afforded quantitative data on the whole set of endogenous cytokinins. Fruit cytokinins were mostly localized in the seeds. Their overall concentrations increased dramatically during early seed development and remained high for 6-8 weeks, until shortly before seed ripening (the last time point covered in this work). Overall cytokinin levels in the perianth did not change markedly in the period covered, but the level of N6-(Delta2-isopentenyl)adenine-type cytokinins appeared to increase slightly and transiently during the greening phase. The perianths of unpollinated or depistillated flowers, which survived, but did not pass through the complete greening process, contained significantly less cytokinins than observed in fruit-bearing flowers. This suggests that perianth greening requires defined cytokinin levels and supports the role of the developing fruit in their maintenance.


In this paper a new model validation procedure for a logistic regression model is presented. At first, we illustrate a brief review of different techniques of model validation. Next, we define a number of properties required for a model to be considered "good", and a number of quantitative performance measures. Lastly, we describe a methodology for the assessment of the performance of a given model by using an example taken from a management study.


This second article about extraoral anatomy as seen in cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) images presents a literature review of the zygomatico-orbital region. The latter bounds the maxillary sinus superiorly and laterally. Since pathologic changes of the maxillary sinus are a frequent indication for three-dimensional radiography, the contiguous orbital cavity and the zygomatic bone may become visible on CBCT scans. The zygomatic bone forms the cheek prominence and has large contact areas with the maxilla through the zygomaticomaxillary suture in the infraorbital region as well as with the sphenoid bone along the lateral orbital wall. Each of the three surfaces of the zygomatic bone displays foramina that transmit neurovascular structures. The orbital cavity is located immediately above the maxillary sinus from which it is separated only by a thin bony plate simultaneously serving as the orbital floor and the roof of the maxillary sinus. Several openings, such as the superior and inferior orbital fissures, the ethmoidal and cranio-orbital foramina, and the optic and infraorbital canals, connect the orbit to the anterior and middle cranial fossae as well as to the infratemporal and pterygopalatine fossae.


In this paper we investigate the relationship between inequality and the environment in a growing economy from a political economy perspective. We consider an endogenous growth economy, where growth generates pollution and a deterioration of the environment. Public expenditures may either be devoted to supporting growth or abating pollution. The decision over the public programs is done in a direct democracy, with simple majority rule. We prove that the median voter is decisive and show that inequality is harmful for the environment : the poorer the median voter relative to the average individual, the less she will tax and devote resources to the environment, preferring to support growth.


Neutrophils play a critical role in cancer, with both protumor and antitumor neutrophil subpopulations reported. The antitumor neutrophil subpopulation has the capacity to kill tumor cells and limit metastatic spread, yet not all tumor cells are equally susceptible to neutrophil cytotoxicity. Because cells that evade neutrophils have greater chances of forming metastases, we explored the mechanism neutrophils use to kill tumor cells. Neutrophil cytotoxicity was previously shown to be mediated by secretion of H2O2 We report here that neutrophil cytotoxicity is Ca2+ dependent and is mediated by TRPM2, a ubiquitously expressed H2O2-dependent Ca2+ channel. Perturbing TRPM2 expression limited tumor cell proliferation, leading to attenuated tumor growth. Concomitantly, cells expressing reduced levels of TRPM2 were protected from neutrophil cytotoxicity and seeded more efficiently in the premetastatic lung.Significance: These findings identify the mechanism utilized by neutrophils to kill disseminated tumor cells and to limit metastatic spread. Cancer Res; 78(10); 2680-90. ©2018 AACR.


Range restriction is a common problem in organizational research and is an important statistical artifact to correct for in meta-analysis. Historically, researchers have had to rely on range-restriction corrections that only make use of range-restriction information for one variable, but it is not uncommon for researchers to have such information for both variables in a correlation (e.g., when studying the correlation between two predictor variables). Existing meta-analytic methods incorporating bivariate range-restriction corrections overlook their unique implications for estimating the sampling variance of corrected correlations and for accurately assigning weights to studies in individual-correction meta-analyses. We introduce new methods for computing individual-correction and artifact-distribution meta-analyses using the bivariate indirect range restriction (BVIRR; "Case V") correction and describe improved methods for applying BVIRR corrections that substantially reduce bias in parameter estimation. We illustrate the effectiveness of these methods in a large-scale simulation and in meta-analyses of expatriate data. We provide R code to implement the methods described in this article; more comprehensive and robust functions for applying these methods are available in the psychmeta package for R.


BACKGROUND
Cancer end-of-life care (EoLC) policies assume people want to die at home. We aimed to examine variations in preferences for place of death cross-nationally.

METHODS
A telephone survey of a random sample of individuals aged ≥16 in England, Flanders, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain. We determined where people would prefer to die if they had a serious illness such as advanced cancer, facilitating circumstances, personal values and experiences of illness, death and dying.

RESULTS
Of 9344 participants, between 51% (95% CI: 48% to 54%) in Portugal and 84% (95% CI: 82% to 86%) in the Netherlands would prefer to die at home. Cross-national analysis found there to be an influence of circumstances and values but not of experiences of illness, death and dying. Four factors were associated with a preference for home death in more than one country: younger age up to 70+ (Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain), increased importance of dying in the preferred place (England, Germany, Portugal, Spain), prioritizing keeping a positive attitude (Germany, Spain) and wanting to involve family in decisions if incapable (Flanders, Portugal).

CONCLUSIONS
At least two-thirds of people prefer a home death in all but one country studied. The strong association with personal values suggests keeping home care at the heart of cancer EoLC.


Under the assumption of similar general legal environments, the following analysis suggests that a strategy of confidential secrecy in R&D is less significant for Japanese enterprises. Founded upon this difference the amount of patent induced information disclosure effects for Japan is not as essential as it is for Europe. Consequently, the blockade effect in Japan is comparatively dominant, i.e. in Japan the negative aspects of patent protection effect the system more immediately. Thus, one might argue that less patent protection is more fruitful for Japan. Given this analysis, the current endeavours of the USA, the European Union and Japan to harmonize patent legislation for the biotechnology sector appears to be flawed.


A survey was conducted in Portugal to detect root-knot and plant-parasitic nematodes associated with edible fig trees (Ficus carica). Fifty-three soil and root samples were collected in seven Portuguese districts. Fruits from edible fig and wild caprifig trees (F. carica sylvestris) were also collected. Of the genera and species found, Helicotylenchus spp., Heterodera fici, Meloidogyne spp., Paratylenchus sp., Pratylenchus sp., and Xiphinema spp. were the most widely distributed. Root-knot nematodes are probably the nematodes that are most damaging to fig trees. Ogma palmatum, Mesocriconema xenoplax and Schistonchus caprifici are recorded for the first time from Portugal.


Failures of transformers in sub-transmission systems not only reduce reliability of power system but also have significant effects on power quality since one of the important components of any system quality is reliability of that system. To enhance utility reliability, failure analysis and its rates, failure origin and physical damage causes must be studied. This paper describes a case study of the reliability of sub-transmission transformers (63/20 KV) installed in Mazandaran province, operated in sub-transmission system. The information obtained from Meandering Regional Electric Company. The results of study and analysis on 60 substation including more than 110 transformers installed in sub-transmission system show that the failure modes of transformers can be represented by Weibull distribution. Weibull statistics have been widely used and accepted as a successful mathematical method to predict the remaining life time of any equipment. Useful conclusions are presented both for power systems operators and manufactures for improving the reliability of transformers.


Noonan syndrome is an autosomal-dominant inherited syndrome with variable expression of multiple malformations including cardiovascular and craniofacial anomalies. While cerebrovascular insults due to cardiogenic emboli, coagulation abnormalities or cerebrovascular malformations have been documented before, intracerebral occlusive artery disease is not well recognized as a cause of stroke in this syndrome. A 6-year-old girl with Noonan syndrome presented with repetitive transient ischemic attacks consisting of dysphasia and right-sided central facial and arm weakness. Neuroimaging showed acute ischemic lesions in the left putamen and caudate nucleus. Multiple intracranial stenoses were found during transcranial Doppler examination and MR angiography. Although hypertrophic cardiomyopathy was documented by transesophageal echocardiography, a cardioembolic origin of the ischemic attacks was unlikely in this case. The symptoms resolved and did not recur after antiplatelet and anticoagulant therapy was initiated. Stenoses of intracranial cerebral arteries should be considered among the causes of stroke in young patients with Noonan syndrome.


Software testing is one of the crucial activities in the system development life cycle. The purpose of testing can be quality assurance, verification and validation, or reliability estimation. In Motorolareg, Automation Testing is a methodology TM uses by GSG-iSGT (Global Software Group - iDENtrade Subcriber Group Testing) to increase the testing volume, productivity and reduce test cycle-time in cell phone software testing. In addition, automated stress testing can make the products become more robust before release to the market. In this paper, the author discuss one of the automation stress testing tools that iSGT use, which is RPB (Record and PlayBack). RPB is a platform specific desktop rapid test-case creation tool. This tool is able to capture all the information on the phone in order to have highest accurately in testing. Furthermore, RPB allows user to do testing at anytime, anywhere provided there is an Internet connection. The authors also discuss the value that automation has bought to iDENtrade phone testing together with the metrics. We will also look into the advantages of the proposed system and some discussion of the future work.


A Thesis Submitted to Department of Zoological Sciences, in Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Biology


We report on the three-dimensional time-reversal-invariant Hofstadter model with finite spin-orbit coupling. We introduce three numerical methods for characterizing the topological phases based on twisted boundary conditions, Wilson loops, as well as the local topological marker. Besides the weak and strong topological insulator phases we find a nodal line semimetal in the parameter regime between the two three-dimensional topological insulator phases. Using dynamical mean-field theory combined with the topological Hamiltonian approach we find stabilization of these three-dimensional topological states due to the Hubbard interaction. We study surface states which exhibit an asymmetry between left and right surface originating from the broken parity symmetry of the system. Our results set the stage for further research on inhomogeneous three-dimensional topological systems, proximity effects, topological Mott insulators and non-trivially linked nodal line semimetals.


The genus Oreobates Jiménez de la Espada (1872) is monophyletic, and currently 24 species of Oreobates have been named (Köhler Padial, 2016). Oreobates distributed from southern Colombia to central Brazil and northwestern Argentina (Köhler Padial, 2016; Teixeira, Amaro, Recoder, De Sena, Rodrigues, 2012). Most species of Oreobates occur in the cloud and montane forests of the tropical and subtropical Andes from Ecuador to Argentina (Padial et al., 2012). Padial et al., (2012) described Oreobates amarakaeri with two specimens collected in 2008 between 685-1000 m a.s.l. in Distrito Camanti, Quispicanchis Province, Department of Cusco, Peru (Figure 1). Herein we report four additional specimens of O. amarakaeri, extending its distributional and altitudinal ranges in southern Peru. We collected specimens during our surveys in the Departments of Cusco and Puno.


INTRODUCTION
Following resection for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), patients are usually admitted to the post-anesthesia care unit (PACU)for a few hours before admission to a general ward (GW). However, some patients need ICU-admission, either immediately post-surgery or from the PACU or GW. The aim of this study was to investigate the indications and risk factors for ICU-admission.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
A retrospective study of 252 patients who underwent lobectomy, wedge resection or segmentectomy for NSCLC in Iceland during 2001-2010. Data was retrieved from medical records and patients admitted to the ICU compared to patients not admitted.

RESULTS
Altogether 21 patients (8%) were admitted to the ICU, median length-of-stay being one day (range 1-68). In 11 cases (52%) the reasons for admission were intraoperative problems, usually hypotension or excessive bleeding. Ten patients were admitted from the GW (n=4) or PACU (n=6), due to hypotension (n=4), heart and/or respiratory failure (n=4) and reoperation for bleeding (n=2). There were three ICU-readmissions. Patients admitted to the ICU were six years older (p=0.004) and more often had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and/or coronary artery disease. Tumor size, pTNM-stage, length of operation and the ratio of patients receiving TEA (thoracic epidural anaesthesia) were similar between groups. Over two-thirds of the ICU-patients had minor complications and around half had major complications, compared to 30% and 4%, respectively, for controls.

CONCLUSION
ICU-admissions are infrequent following non-pneumonectomy lung resections for NSCLC, these patients being older with cardiopulmonary comorbidities. In half of the cases, admission to the ICU directly follows surgery and ICU-readmissions are few.


Abstract. This paper reviews the main advances in the area of data-based modelling of the Earth's distant magnetic field achieved during the last two decades. The essence and the principal goal of the approach is to extract maximum information from available data, using physically realistic and flexible mathematical structures, parameterized by the most relevant and routinely accessible observables. Accordingly, the paper concentrates on three aspects of the modelling: (i) mathematical methods to develop a computational "skeleton" of a model, (ii) spacecraft databases, and (iii) parameterization of the magnetospheric models by the solar wind drivers and/or ground-based indices. The review is followed by a discussion of the main issues concerning further progress in the area, in particular, methods to assess the models' performance and the accuracy of the field line mapping. The material presented in the paper is organized along the lines of the author Julius-Bartels' Medal Lecture during the General Assembly 2013 of the European Geosciences Union.


Despite increasing capital mobility and the subsequent difficulty in controlling exchange rates, intermediate exchange-rate regimes have remained widespread, especially in emerging and developing economies. This piece of evidence hardly fits the "impossible Trinity" theory arguing that it becomes difficult to control the exchange rate without a "hard" device when capital flows are freed. Calvo and Reinhart (2000) have suggested several explanations for such "fear of floating": exchange rate pass-through, liability dollarization, dollar invoicing of domestic and external transactions, and an underdeveloped market for currency hedging make it more desirable to stabilize the nominal exchange rate. However, the New-Keynesian model, which has become the main workhorse for studying exchange-rate regime choice since the 1990s, typically opposes fixed nominal pegs to free-floating regime, without considering intermediate regimes. We intend to fill this gap here by comparing the performance of "extreme" regimes to that of an intermediate regime where monetary authorities care both about inflation and about nominal exchange-rate deviations from the steady state, when a small economy is hit by several types of shocks. Without nominal wage rigidities, our results are in line with the New-Keynesian literature arguing in favor of inflation-targeting regimes. However, when nominal wage rigidities are taken into account, we find the intermediate regime to be appropriate for an economy that is mainly hit by productivity and foreign-interest shocks, which is often the case in emerging and developing economies. The free-floating regime (with inflation targeting) seems more adequate if the economy experiences mostly demand shocks and foreign prices shock. Finally, the fixed peg regime is always dominated by either the free-floating or the intermediate regime. A fully-fledged analysis of intermediate regimes should of course account for the fear-of-floating-type advantages of such regimes, as well as for their shortcomings in terms of costly reserve-accumulation and/or recurrent crises. Our results however suggest that, by concentrating on two extreme regimes (fixed nominal pegs and free floats), by neglecting wage rigidities and/or by assuming that floating countries can engineer an "optimal" interest-rate feedback rule, the existing New-Keynesian literature may have exaggerated the merits of free-floating regimes to the detriment of "soft" pegs.


Mitotic recombination within the β-galactosidase gene was followed in F' merodiploids grown in the presence and absence of inducer. Inducer inhibited recombination when the two mutations in the merodiploid were nonpolar but had no effect when the mutations were strongly polar. These results are interpreted to mean that transcription inhibits intragenic mitotic recombination and that strongly polar mutations inhibit transcription.


AIM
This paper is a report of a review conducted to identify, critically analyse and synthesize the humour literature across a number of fields related to health, health care and nursing.

BACKGROUND
The humour-health hypothesis suggests that there is a positive link between humour and health. Humour has been a focus of much contention and deliberation for centuries, with three theories dominating the field: the superiority or tendentious theory, the incongruity theory and the relief theory.

DATA SOURCES
A comprehensive literature search was carried out in January 2007 using a number of databases, keywords, manual recursive searching and journal alerts (January 1980-2007) cross-referenced with the bibliographic databases of the International Society of Humor Studies. An inclusion and exclusion criterion was identified.

REVIEW METHODS
A narrative review of evidence- and non-evidence-based papers was conducted, using a relevant methodological framework with additional scrutiny of secondary data sources in the latter. Humour theories, incorporating definition, process and impact constituted a significant part of the appraisal process.

RESULTS
A total of 1630 papers were identified, with 220 fully sourced and 88 included in the final review. There is a dearth of humour research within nursing yet, ironically, an abundance of non-evidence-based opinion citing prerequisites and exclusion zones. Examination of physician-patient interaction and the humour-health hypothesis demonstrates that use of humour by patients is both challenging and revealing, particularly with regard to self-deprecating humour.

CONCLUSION
Nurses and nursing should adopt a circumspect and evidenced-based approach to humour use in their work.


It is vitally important that business students understand the conceptual meaning of the time value of money (TVM) and how to solve TVM related business problems. Most textbooks explain TVM using only discrete compounding. We argue that incorporating continuous (or exponential) compounding into the curriculum can be advantageous. The exponential model allows students to develop a better conceptual understanding of TVM problems. It allows instructors to visually demonstrate a number of important TVM concepts. And finally, the exponential model allows students to understand and solve problems from the natural world. Student reaction to the incorporation of continuous compounding into the curriculum is generally positive.


Practically every engineering product with any degree of complexity uses threaded fasteners. Although threaded fasteners are generally considered a mature technology, significant problems exist with their use. This study has investigated a number of issues with the tightening and self-loosening of threaded fasteners.

- It was found that upon repeated tightening of electro-zinc plated fastners significant wear of the contact surfaces of the bolt/nut thread and nut face occured. This wear was accompanied by an increase in the friction coefficient causing a reduction in the clamp force provided for an assembly when tightened to a specific torque value.

- The self-loosening characteristics of prevailing torque nuts were also investigated. It was found that there was a significant loss of prevailing torque when a fastner self-loosened when compared to the prevailing torque when being deliberately disassembled. The current standard test for prevailing torque nuts on re-use does not reflect this surprising result and leads to a significant over-estimate of the capability of this class of nut to resist self-loosening. This is a contribution to knowledge on this topic.

- A further major original finding of this study has been that if an axial load is also acting on a joint which is experiencing transverse slip, prevailing torque nuts can continue to self-loosen leading to their possible detachment from bolts. A number of accidents have been caused by such detachments, but the cause was not understood partly because this detachment could not be reproduced on the standard loosening test. Work reported in this thesis has been found that if an external axial load is acting whilst the joint is experiencing transverse slip, under the approprioate conditions, the loosening process will continue until nut detachment occurs.

- A series of tests has been completed in which the forces needed to tighten and loosen threaded fastners were measured whilst the joint was being subjected to transverse slip/vibration. Measurements were made of the frictional resistance forces in the circumfrential direction and the loosening torque acting on a fastner under transverse slip conditions. It was found that the loosening torque range varied between two positive limits rather than between zero and an upper limit as anticipated by the theory. It was also found that the friction coefficient in the circumfrential direction in the threads is greated than that on the nut face bearing surface during conditions of transverse slip.


Objective: To investigate the expression of protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B (PTP1B) in serum of Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) patients and its correlation with the Metabolic Syndrome (MS). Methods: ELISA was used to detect the expression of protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B (PTP1B) in the serum. Samples were divided into three different groups: 21 cases in control group; 48 cases in the group of non-MS-PCOS; 15 cases in the group of MS-PCOS. Results: The level of PTP1B in serum of PCOS patients was (66.65 ± 24.30 ng/L) higher than that of control group (52.72 ± 16.20 ng/L),(P<0.05). PTP1B level in serum of MS-PCOS was (73.14 ± 20.07 ng/L) that was higher than that of non-MS-PCOS (64.62 ± 25.33 ng/L, P<0.05). PTP1B was positively correlated with Body Mass Index (BMI), Waist Circumference (WC), Fasting Plasma Glucose (FPG) and homeostatic model assessment insulin resistance (HOMA-IR (P<0.05)). Conclusion: Elevated serum level of PTP1B is an important factor which caused insulin resistance in PCOS patients. Moreover, PTP1B is related to obese, fasting plasma glucose and insulin resistance of metabolic syndrome, which may play a role in the diagnosis or treatment of PCOS and metabolic


Quantitative real-time PCR assays are widely used for the quantification of mRNA within avian experimental samples. Multiple stably-expressed reference genes, selected for the lowest variation in representative samples, can be used to control random technical variation. Reference gene assays must be reliable, have high amplification specificity and efficiency, and not produce signals from contaminating DNA. Whilst recent research papers identify specific genes that are stable in particular tissues and experimental treatments, here we describe a panel of ten avian gene primer and probe sets that can be used to identify suitable reference genes in many experimental contexts. The panel was tested with TaqMan and SYBR Green systems in two experimental scenarios: a tissue collection and virus infection of cultured fibroblasts. GeNorm and NormFinder algorithms were able to select appropriate reference gene sets in each case. We show the effects of using the selected genes on the detection of statistically significant differences in expression. The results are compared with those obtained using 28s ribosomal RNA, the present most widely accepted reference gene in chicken work, identifying circumstances where its use might provide misleading results. Methods for eliminating DNA contamination of RNA reduced, but did not completely remove, detectable DNA. We therefore attached special importance to testing each qPCR assay for absence of signal using DNA template. The assays and analyses developed here provide a useful resource for selecting reference genes for investigations of avian biology.


Excerpt] In September 1963, Leave It To Beaver aired for the last time. Yet, the archetype of family life that this show idealized—the employed father and stay-at-home mother within the nuclear family—was so engrained in the collective unconscious that American Women: The Report of the President's Commission on the Status of Women (hereafter American Women), delivered to President Kennedy in 1963, made almost no mention of it. It was just assumed that this was normal. Fifty years later perhaps the most profound change in American society is the change in family structures. In 1963, roughly two thirds of U.S. households were like the Cleavers in Leave It to Beaver. Today, married couples with children represent only about 20% of U.S. households. The other 80% of households reflect a myriad of families—from single parents to same sex couples to dual-income couples, some of whom are married and some of whom are not. This paper focuses on the changes on the home front and how they have interacted with changes on the work front to create a new set of challenges and opportunities for ensuring that women and men can reach their full potential.


Abstract: The Riemann zeta function is one of the most Euler's important and fascinating functions in mathematics. By analyzing the material of Riemann's conjecture, we divide our analysis in the ζ(z) function and in the proof of the conjecture, which has very important consequences on the distribution of prime numbers. The proof of the Hypothesis of Riemann result from the simple logic, that when two properties are associated, (the resulting equations that based in two Functional equations of Riemann ), if zero these equations, ie ζ(z) = ζ (1-z)= 0 and simultaneously they to have the proved property 1-1 of the Riemann function ζ(z).Thus, there is not margin for to non exist the Re (z) = 1/2 {because ζ (z) = ζ (1-z)=0 and also ζ(z) as and ζ(1-z) are 1-1}.This, as it stands, will gives the direction of all the non-trivial roots to be all in on the critical line, with a value in the real axis equal 1/2.


Immuno Systems Biology aims to study the immune system in the more integrated manner on how cells and molecules participate at different system levels to the immune function. Through this bookKumar Selvarajoointroduces to physicists, chemists, computer scientists, biologists and immunologists the idea of an integrated approach to the understanding of mammalian immune system. Geared towards a researcher with limited immunological and computational analytical experience, the book provides a broad overview to the subject and some instruction in basic computational, theoretical and experimental approaches. The book links complex immunological processes with computational analysis and emphasizes the importance of immunology to themammalian system.


This study examined the relationship between participants' presession perceptions of mood and expectations of success, rapport and the quality of the interactions with the experimenter, and the subsequent outcome of the ganzfeld telepathy sessions. A total of 38 ganzfeld telepathy trials were conducted by three different experimenters using an automated free-response testing system. Participants consisted mainly of volunteers from the local community and the experimenters' friends and acquaintances. Overall psi task performance, based upon ratings of the target relative to the dummy video clips, was slightly and non-significantly below chance (mean z - -.015, SD = .81, one-sample t(37)=-.11, p=.90, two-tailed r=-.002); there were no significant differences between the experimenters. The findings concerning potential links between subsequent psi task performance and participants' and experimenters' ratings of their pre-session personal feelings and expectations and their perceptions of the rapport and quality of interaction between all parties are somewhat unclear and, in some cases, contradictory. More qualitative analyses of, for example, filmed interactions between participants and psi-inhibitory and psi-conducive experimenters might identify more reliable predictors of psi performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved) (journal abstract)


As an efficient alternative to fossil fuels, renewable energy sources have attained great attention due to their sustainable, cost-effective, and environmentally friendly characteristic. However, as a deficiency, renewable energy sources have low reliability because of their non-deterministic and stochastic generation pattern. The use of hybrid renewable generation systems along with the storage units can mitigate the reliability problem. Hence, in this paper, a grid connected hybrid micro-grid is presented, which includes wind and photovoltaic resources as the primary power sources and a hydrogen storage system (including fuel cell and electrolyzer) as a backup. A new power management strategy is proposed to perform a proper load sharing among the micro-grid units. Hybrid (distributed/central) control method is applied for the realization of the control objectives such as DC bus voltage regulation, power factor control, synchronous grid connection, and power fluctuation suppression. Distributed controllers have the task of fulfilling local control objectives such as MPPT implementation and storage unit control. On the other hand, the central control unit is mainly responsible for power management in the micro-grid. Performance and effectiveness of the proposed power management strategy for the presented micro-grid are verified using a simulation study.


This paper demonstrates a scalable and fast-shaping topdown integration technique, Laser Dynamic Forming (LDF), capable of manufacturing 3D functional structures conformal to micro-to-mesoscale curvilinear features on various substrates by the laser-induced shockwave. The functional devices in this study, temperature sensors, preserved their electrical resistance and temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR) after selectively laser forming on metallic interconnections. The ductile interconnections inherit 3D microscale structures on various substrates and experience significant plastic deformations without excessive necking and fracture. It was realized by the polymeric encapsulation of functional materials and the shockwave controlled by laser pulse intensity. It was revealed in experiments and analytical solutions that the encapsulation layer (parylene-C) absorbs most of shockwave energy by large thickness reduction and extends the formability of ductile interconnections by highquality deposition and bonding. Comparatively, the thickness of ductile functional materials was reduced very limitedly and uniformly along the 3D microfeatures by low and moderate laser intensities. The manufacturability of functional structures is determined by the applied laser intensity, as well as the size and aspect ratio of 3D microfeatures.


Author(s): Conway, Neil Robert George | Advisor(s): Hellerstein, Joseph M | Abstract: Driven by the widespread adoption of both cloud computing and mobile devices, distributed computing is increasingly commonplace. As a result, a growing proportion of developers must tackle the complexity of distributed programming---that is, they must ensure correct application behavior in the face of asynchrony, concurrency, and partial failure. To help address these difficulties, developers have traditionally relied upon system infrastructure that provides strong consistency guarantees (e.g., consensus protocols and distributed transactions). These mechanisms hide much of the complexity of distributed computing---for example, by allowing programmers to assume that all nodes observe the same set of events in the same order. Unfortunately, providing such strong guarantees becomes increasingly expensive as the scale of the system grows, resulting in availability and latency costs that are unacceptable for many modern applications. Hence, many developers have explored building applications that only require loose consistency guarantees---for example, storage systems that only guarantee that all replicas eventually converge to the same state, meaning that a replica might exhibit an arbitrary state at any particular time. Adopting loose consistency involves making a well-known tradeoff: developers can avoid paying the latency and availability costs incurred by mechanisms for achieving strong consistency, but in exchange they must deal with the full complexity of distributed computing. As a result, achieving correct application behavior in this environment is very difficult. This thesis explores how to aid developers of loosely consistent applications by providing programming language support for the difficulties they face. The language level is a natural place to tackle this problem: because developers that use loose consistency have fewer system facilities that they can depend on, consistency concerns are naturally pushed into application logic. In part, our goal has been to recognize, formalize, and automate application-level consistency patterns. We describe three language variants that each tackle a different challenge in distributed programming. Each variant is a modification of Bloom, a declarative language for distributed programming we have developed at UC Berkeley. The first variant of Bloom, BloomL, enables deterministic distributed programming without the need for distributed coordination. Second, Edelweiss allows distributed storage reclamation protocols to be generated in a safe and automatic fashion. Finally, BloomPO adds sophisticated ordering constraints that we use to develop a declarative, high-level implementation of concurrent editing, a particularly difficult class of loosely consistent programs.


Laboratory performance test of the high voltage power cable joints at lower voltages is not crucial, nor has the continuous monitoring of partial discharge (PD) been considered necessary. However for HV power cable joints at higher voltages, such as 420 kV, the reliable PD detection during performance test as well as the on-line continuous PD monitoring have been considered desirable to an increasing extent. Accordingly, a system was developed to facilitate such tasks. The system is based on decoupling of PD by means of inductive sensors, signal treatment and investigation according to a technique called INTECH, Inductive Measurement Technique. The laboratory system sensitivity is about 5 pC when the cable is not loaded with any power current and about 30 pC when the cable load is about 2000 A. The first prototype system was tested in the field on a 420 kV cable joint. This paper describes the system and presents some of the field test results.


Objective
To determine whether spinal anesthesia combined with obturator nerve blockade (SOB) is effective in preventing obturator nerve stimulation, jerking and bladder perforation during transurethral resection of bladder tumor (TURBT).

Material and methods
In this clinical trial, 30 patients were randomly divided into two groups: spinal anesthesia (SA) and SOB. In SA group, 2.5 cc of 0.5% bupivacaine was injected intrathecally using a 25-gauge spinal needle and in SOB after spinal anesthesia, a classic obturator nerve blockade was performed by using nerve stimulation technique.

Results
There was a statistically significant difference between jerking in both groups (p=0.006). During the TURBT, surgeon satisfaction was significantly higher in SOB group compared to SA group (p=0.006). There was no significant correlation between sex, patient age and location of bladder tumor between the groups (p>0.05).

Conclusion
Obturator nerve blockade by using 15 cc lidocaine 1% is effective in preventing adductor muscle spasms during TURBT.


A process was developed for the synthesis of cadmium-selenium quantum dots that fluoresce at multiple wavelengths, giving a white color to the solution. The process involved making a selenium pre-cursor, then a cadmium precursor, then injecting the selenium precursor into the cadmium precursor and extracting a sample. Once the a repeatable process for synthesizing white quantum dots was developed, the absorption and fluorescence was measured and recorded over a period of two weeks. In the development of the process, the key variables were the temperature of the cadmium precursor and the time between injecting the selenium precursor and extracting the sample. Extracting the quantum dots within the first second of injection and using a temperature of 220 ±6 °C repeatedly yielded the desired white quantum dots. The white dots exhibited three main fluorescence peaks: at 430-450 nm, 560-580 nm and 610-620 nm. The sample dots showed absorbance from 250 nm to 310 nm. Over time as the quantum dots remained in solution, the peaks shifted to higher wavelengths by 18.5 nm over two weeks, and the intensity decreased by 46%. The shift was caused by growth of the quantum dots over time, but did not significantly affect the visible white color of the dots. The testing showed white quantum dots could be made using a repeatable process with potential applications in white light LED technology.


Abstract Objective To conduct a cost–effectiveness analysis of a hospital electronic medication management system (eMMS). Methods We compared costs and benefits of paper-based prescribing with a commercial eMMS (CSC MedChart) on one cardiology ward in a major 326-bed teaching hospital, assuming a 15-year time horizon and a health system perspective. The eMMS implementation and operating costs were obtained from the study site. We used data on eMMS effectiveness in reducing potential adverse drug events (ADEs), and potential ADEs intercepted, based on review of 1 202 patient charts before (n = 801) and after (n = 401) eMMS. These were combined with published estimates of actual ADEs and their costs. Results The rate of potential ADEs following eMMS fell from 0.17 per admission to 0.05; a reduction of 71%. The annualized eMMS implementation, maintenance, and operating costs for the cardiology ward were A$61 741 (US$55 296). The estimated reduction in ADEs post eMMS was approximately 80 actual ADEs per year. The reduced costs associated with these ADEs were more than sufficient to offset the costs of the eMMS. Estimated savings resulting from eMMS implementation were A$63–66 (US$56–59) per admission (A$97 740–$102 000 per annum for this ward). Sensitivity analyses demonstrated results were robust when both eMMS effectiveness and costs of actual ADEs were varied substantially. Conclusion The eMMS within this setting was more effective and less expensive than paper-based prescribing. Comparison with the few previous full economic evaluations available suggests a marked improvement in the cost–effectiveness of eMMS, largely driven by increased effectiveness of contemporary eMMs in reducing medication errors.


This paper presents some of the most prominent properties of Eegimaa, a Jóola/Diola language spoken in the Basse-Casamance (Southern Senegal). The phonological features examined include [ATR] vowel harmony, backness harmony, lenition, and Eegimaa's typologically unusual geminate consonants. Most of the paper, however, focuses on Eegimaa morphology. My analysis of the noun class system separates morphological classes from agreement classes (genders), and presents the most important principles of semantic categorization, including shape encoding. I also show that Eegimaa classifies nouns and verbs by the same overt linguistic means, namely, noun class prefixes. I argue that this overt classification of nouns and verbs reflects parallel semantic categorization of entities and events. Other prominent typological features include associative plural marking and nominal TAM marking with the inactualis suffix, which also expresses alienability contrasts.


This study examined profitability of sweet potato production in Odeda Local Government Area, Ogun State, Nigeria. The study was based on primary data collected from 82 sweet potato farmers through multistage sampling technique; analysed using descriptive statistics and budgetary techniques. The result revealed that about 90% of the farmers were male with a mean age of 35 years and 22 years of sweet potato farming experience; 87.8% were married and 65% had a household size of 8 persons. About 82% had no formal education, 96% sourced sweet potato vine from previous harvest, 96% acquired land through leasehold while only 13.4% does not belonged to any farmers' cooperative society. Furthermore, 96.3% and 98.8% of the farmers used less than 100kg inorganic and organic fertilizer respectively while 96.3% and 73.1% of the farmers used less than 2litres insecticide and herbicide respectively. Major production constraints were insufficient land (66%), insufficient labour (51%), pest and diseases (82%) as well as mechanization (98%). Budgetary analysis revealed that, on the average, sampled respondents incurred NGN41,374.59 on total cost items, earned a revenue of NGN131,645 and profit of NGN90,270.41 per production season. Sweet potato production had a rate of return on investment of 2.88. Thus, sweet potato production was found to be a profitable enterprise considering the profit realized by farmers in the study area. The study recommended that constraints identified be tackled to enhance greater output. Policies should be implemented by government to provide assistance to farmers in order to expand and access adequate farm resources.


This guide is an in-depth listing of Scandinavian and Nordic Studies resources available to students and faculty at the University of Minnesota. Countries covered include Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden.


A new model-free approach was investigated to control two moving aps and a T-foil of a fast ferry traveling in the head sea. Considered as a highly perturbed system, fast ferries in sea waves suffer from the undesirable effects of pitch and heave motions causing severe vertical accelerations that lead to the discomfort of passengers who then experience seasickness. To appropriately control this multivariable system, a model-free control strategy was adopted. An augmented PD controller with compensating terms resulting from an online identification of an ultralocal model of the system was designed. Relying only on input{output data and using online numerical differentiation based on a fast estimation technique, a nonphysical model was designed and continuously updated to capture all the unknown system dynamics, uncertainties, and perturbations. The resulting controller, known as an intelligent PD (iPD) controller, has been proven to be of a reduced design complexity but able to cope with the system's changing characteristics under high perturbations. The robustness to parameter variations was analyzed and compared to a classic PD controller's performance. The results showed that good reductions in the system's vertical motions and seasickness were obtained with a low computational cost. Moreover, the iPD successfully exhibited very robust behavior based on its model-free property when changing the system parameters and the operating velocity.


This paper proposes a maximum power point tracking (MPPT) technique for variable pitch wind generators with induction machines, which can suitably be adopted in both the maximum power range and the constant power range of the wind speed. For this purpose, an MPPT technique based on the growing neural gas (GNG) wind turbine surface identification and the corresponding function inversion has been adopted to cover also the situation of constant rated power region. This has been obtained by including the blade pitch angle in the space of the data learnt by the GNG and feeding back the estimated wind speed to compute the correct value of the pitch angle, which permits the machine to work at rated power and torque. A further enhancement of the pitch angle selection by a simple perturb & observe method has been added to cope with slight wind estimation errors occurring at machine rated speed. The proposed methodology has been verified both in numerical simulation and experimentally on a properly devised test setup. The correct behavior of the system has been proved also on a real wind speed profile on a daily scale.